Average homeowner insurance rates in Florida did not decline in 2025, but they increased less than 1%, down sharply from the double-digit average increases seen in 2022 and 2023.
And auto insurance rates in the state did fall—by 4.1% last year, a marked difference from a 7.1% spike three years earlier, a new actuarial report from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association finds.
Overall, Florida policyholders paid almost $3 billion less in premiums in 2025 than they year before. And it’s all due to 2022-2023 Florida legislative changes that dra
matically reduced claims litigation and defense costs, the report said, citing data from state regulators, S&P Global Market Intelligence, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and other sources.
“Homeowners insurance litigation has plummeted; the Florida insurance marketplace has stabilized as reforms intended; Florida consumers have benefited in the form of lower rates (or rates rising much more slowly than before)
; they are also benefiting from higher policyholder dividends. Both are functions of declining costs promised by reforms,” the report noted.
See more beautiful photo albums Here >>>
The analysis was penned by Dave Moore, president of Moore Actuarial Consulting in Illinois; and James Lynch, owner of James Lynch Casualty Actuary an
d the former chief actuary for the Insurance Information Institute. The report quoted A.M. Best, the rating agency, which found that: “Instead of being a poster child for abusive claims, Florida has become a role model for legislative regulatory relief.”
The analysis echoes multiple other reports and data points in recent months, which have shown that the Legislature’s actions in 2022, which barred assignments-of-benefits agreements and one-way attorney fees, have reduced crippling litigation costs for Florida carriers.
The actuaries looked at the ratio of defense costs and containment to paid loss for accident year. The data show the ratio has dropped modestly since 2021, a year considered the peak of the Florida property insurance litigation
crisis that led in part to several insurer insolvencies. Comparing non-hurricane years of 2021 to 2025, the ratio for homeowners’ insurance fell from 2.4% to 2%.
The defense costs did not track exactly with the fall off in the volume of claims litigation, but was close. Legal services of process, tracked by the state Department of Financial Services, peaked in late 2021 with more than 8,500 notices of pending litigation. That had fallen to just 2,500 by early 2026.
The ease-up in litigation has caused direct written premiums in homeowners insurance to drop last year for homeowners and personal auto. “It was the first time since 2009 – the Great Recession – that writings fell in both lines in the same year,” the authors noted.
